1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a system and a program for limiting a file operation for a file and a method of the same, particularly, a file operation limiting system, a file operation limiting program, a file operation limiting method, electronics and a printing apparatus, which are suitable for stably operating an apparatus using a storage device and for certainly controlling the capacity of a file.
2. Related Art
A file monitoring system disclosed in JP-A-2000-330833, for example, has been known as a technique for monitoring a condition of a file in a personal computer or an office apparatus.
In an invention disclosed in JP-A-2000-330833, a storage place of a file subject to monitoring and upper-limit capacity values of the latest file capacity and the file capacity are stored in a storage device, the file capacity of the file subject to monitoring is read out and the latest file capacity is compared with the upper-limit capacity value to output report information including a name and capacity of a file exceeding the upper-limit capacity value, time of exceeding the upper-limit capacity value and the upper-limit capacity value in the case that the file capacity exceeds the upper-limit capacity value.
JP-A-2000-330833 is an example of related art.
JP-A-4-364971 is another example of related art.
In some printers for confidential printing such as the invention disclosed in JP-A-4-364971, printing data sent from a terminal of a host is stored in a storage device and a user inputs identification information to the printer to carry out print based on the printing data of the storage device when the inputted identification information is accorded with the identification information of the printing data. In such a printer for confidential printing, printing data of plural users should be stored in the printer. In this case, when a specific user A prints extremely large printing data or executes plural printing jobs at a time, the printing data of the user A almost exhausts the storage capacity of the printer, so that printing data of the other users cannot be stored in the printer. This causes a problem in that other users cannot carry out printing until the user A completes printing.
In the invention disclosed in JP-A-2000-330833, file capacity is limited for every file. This allows file capacity used by an individual file to be controlled. When the invention disclosed in JP-A-2000-330833 is applied to file control in a confidential printing printer, however, an increase in the number of printing data in the storage device causes very large total file capacity of all printing data even in the case that file capacity of respective printing data is under the upper-limit value thereof. This also causes the above problem.
Such a problem is not limited to the case of confidential printing but similarly expected in all environments where a file is controlled within limited storage capacity. That is to say, when executing a requirement with a file operation (a requirement by a user or an application, for example) pressures the storage capacity, execution of another requirement with a file operation is obstructed. This causes a problem in that an apparatus using the storage device cannot be operated stably.
Further, in the invention disclosed in JP-A-2000-330833, monitoring whether the file capacity exceeds the upper-limit value or not is carried out in a predetermined cycle. Accordingly, the file capacity is likely to temporally exceed the upper-limit value when timing of a file operation is not accorded with timing of the monitoring. This causes a problem in that the file capacity cannot be certainly controlled.